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Full-Text Articles in Psychology

Session Duration And The Vi Response Function: With-In Session Prospective And Retrospective Efffects, James Dougan, Alfred Kuh, K. Vink Oct 1993

Session Duration And The Vi Response Function: With-In Session Prospective And Retrospective Efffects, James Dougan, Alfred Kuh, K. Vink

James Dougan

Two experiments examined the effects of session duration on responding during simple variable-interval schedules. In Experiment 1, rats were exposed to a series of simple variable-interval schedules differing in both session duration (10 min or 30 min) and scheduled reinforcement rate (7.5 s,15 s, 30 s, and 480 s). The functions relating response rate to reinforcement rate were predominantly monotonic for the short (10-min) sessions but were predominantly bitonic for the long (30-min) sessions, when data from the entire session were considered. Examination of responding within sessions suggested that differences in the whole-session data were produced by a combination of …


1. Children's Decision-Making Competency: Misunderstanding Piaget., Thomas D. Lyon Jul 1993

1. Children's Decision-Making Competency: Misunderstanding Piaget., Thomas D. Lyon

Thomas D. Lyon

Children's decision making ability is important in a number of areas in the law.  A child's competence to decide affects how her actions and opinions are evaluated in family court proceedings, dependency actions, delinquency cases, and civil suits.


1. Young Children's Understanding Of Forgetting Over Time., Thomas D. Lyon, John H. Flavell May 1993

1. Young Children's Understanding Of Forgetting Over Time., Thomas D. Lyon, John H. Flavell

Thomas D. Lyon

2 studies investigated young children's understanding that as the retention interval increases, so do the chances that one will forget. In Study 1 (24 3-year-olds and 24 4-year-olds), 4-year-olds but not 3-year-olds understood that of 2 characters who simultaneously saw an object, the character who waited longer before attempting to find it would not remember where it was. In study 2 (24 3-year-olds and 24 4-year-olds), 4-year-olds but not 3-year-olds understood that of 2 objects seen by a character, the object that was seen a "long long time ago" would be forgotten and the object seen "a little while ago" …


Ynical Hostility And Cardiovascular Reactivity During Self-Disclosure, Alan Christensen, T. Smith Dec 1992

Ynical Hostility And Cardiovascular Reactivity During Self-Disclosure, Alan Christensen, T. Smith

Alan J. Christensen

Recent research suggests that hostility might contribute to the development of coronary heart disease (CHD) and other illnesses. One potential mechanism linking hostility and health is exaggerated physiological reactivity to social stressors. Given that mistrust and suspiciousness are closely related to this trait, the self-disclosure of personal information regarding a stressful experience may elicit heightened reactivity in hostile persons. To evaluate this hypothesis, undergraduate men (N = 60) classified as high or low on the Cook and Medley Hostility (Ho) Scale were randomly assigned to either a self-disclosure or a nondisclosure condition. Consistent with prediction, among subjects participating in the …


After Poststructuralism: Interdisciplinarity And Literary Theory, Nancy Easterlin Dec 1992

After Poststructuralism: Interdisciplinarity And Literary Theory, Nancy Easterlin

Nancy Easterlin

No abstract provided.


Short-Term Memory (Nature, Contents, Formation, Encoding, Organization), Pennie Seibert Dec 1992

Short-Term Memory (Nature, Contents, Formation, Encoding, Organization), Pennie Seibert

Pennie S. Seibert

No abstract provided.


Response-Reinforcer Independence And The Economic Continuum: A Preliminary Analysis, Abdulrazaq A. Imam Dec 1992

Response-Reinforcer Independence And The Economic Continuum: A Preliminary Analysis, Abdulrazaq A. Imam

Abdulrazaq A. Imam

Three pigeons were exposed to 1-hr and 4-hr sessions during which they earned food under a fixedratio 50 schedule of reinforcement while obtaining additional food according to either a variableinterval or a variable-time schedule. Postsession food was provided after the 1-hr sessions. The frequency of the variable-interval and variable-time food presentations was varied under the two session durations. The various combinations of within-session earned and unearned food, as well as the postsession food, defined conditions on the open-to-closed economy continuum. Key pecks tended to increase as the frequency of either variable-interval or variable-time food decreased. An economiccontinuum analysis based on …


Associative Properties Of A Conditioned Inhibitor As A Function Of Age In Cats., Nancy K. Dess, Stephan S. Soltysik Dec 1992

Associative Properties Of A Conditioned Inhibitor As A Function Of Age In Cats., Nancy K. Dess, Stephan S. Soltysik

Nancy K Dess

The efficacy of conditioned inhibition in a novel conditioned stimulus/conditioned inhibitor (CS/CI) compound was tested in 6-, 10-, and 14-week-old kittens. The conditioned response was suppression of respiration elicited by a 5.1-sec CS paired with a brief, mild footshock. During coterminated 3 sec later without the shock. As previously reported, the CI trained in this paradigm is more potent in older kittens but passes a summation test in all age groups (Dess & Soltysik, 1989). In the transfer test, the order of the CS and CI was reversed, so that the CI preceded the CS with no stimulus overlap. Transfer …


Finite State Automata: Dynamic Task Environments In Problem Solving Research, Axel Buchner, Joachim Funke Dec 1992

Finite State Automata: Dynamic Task Environments In Problem Solving Research, Axel Buchner, Joachim Funke

Joachim Funke

This paper presents a new research paradigm for analysing human learning in dynamic task environments based on the theory of finite-state automata. Some of the advantages of the approach are outlined. (1) It is possible to design classes of formally well-described dynamic task environments instead of idiosyncratic microworlds that are difficult if not impossible to compare. (2) The approach suggests assumptions about the mental representation of a discrete dynamic system. (3) The finite-state automata formalism suggests systematic and appropriate diagnostic procedures. (4) Using finite-state automata to design dynamic task environments, one does not have to give up the "ecological validity" …


Microworlds Based On Linear Equation Systems: A New Approach To Complex Problem Solving And Experimental Results, Joachim Funke Dec 1992

Microworlds Based On Linear Equation Systems: A New Approach To Complex Problem Solving And Experimental Results, Joachim Funke

Joachim Funke

The method of computer-simulated scenarios has recently been introduced to study how people solve complex problems. This paper describes a special approach to constructing such microworlds by means of linear structural equation systems. Subjects' task in the experimental situation is to first identify in a knowledge acquisition phase the causal structure of an hitherto unknown system. In a later knowledge application phase they have to control this system with respect to a given goal state. Knowledge that was acquired on the task is assessed both by means of causal diagrams - a method developed within this project and proven to …